Deceit
by crash923
Summary: The flock find their younger siblings, and have to set them free from the school. In an encounter with some interesting people, Max is injured, and the flock have to try and get back before she's dead. Of course, fate won't let them get there easily. CHAP
1. The Chalet

Man, do you know something? Flying is just so cool! Ok, well, you probably don't know that, as you are not a mutant freak with 13 foot wings. I, on the other hand am. We, technically, we are, as there are six of us. Well, now I think about it, there are more than six, but, there are six that I know.

We were flying over this beautiful mountain range, you know, postcard image. There was snow, and trees, and it was beautiful, I smiled, enjoying the feeling of the cold biting into my skin, and enjoying the silence, of course, silence never lasts for long.

"Max, I'm hungry," there goes the inevitable cry form Nudge. Oh well, who can blame her, she's only a kid. She caught my eye, and looked pleadingly at me, her long, dark hair, whipping around her pretty face.

" Ok, Fang?" I asked my second in command. He just looked at me, giving no real answer. Fang, the dark silent member of the flock, but also the most dependable, he's always there, his dark wings never even miss a beat, no matter what. I looked carefully, and saw and almost invisible nod, ok, we were clear. "Gazzy," I said, addressing the small blonde eight year old kid, "Angel, Iggy," the other two members. Angel was Gazzy's younger sister, she was six. Iggy is blind, and also an expert on any kind of explosives, he's fourteen, like me and Fang, and Nudge is eleven. "We're going down," they all nodded, but Fang gave me a look like, where are you planning on stopping.

Everyone always seems to come to me for the answer, that's probably 'cause I'm the leader. I'm Max, the leader, the eldest, the one always expected to have the answer, and right now, I did. I could see a holiday cabin, and as it was a school term, likelihood was that no one was in.

This reminded me a lot of what we'd done back about six months ago when we'd saved Angel. Fang, Nudge and I had gone into a cabin just like this one, which meant, luckily, that we knew how to break in.

We all dropped down, and found that no car had been in the drive for a while, and that the house appeared empty, even better there were no motion detectors, or alarms, we cold get in easily. The problem, the doors were locked and I didn't have a clue how to pick them.

"Iggy, Fang! Get over here now!" They both walked up,

" Yes, your highness," muttered Iggy sarcastically. He was tired, we all were.

" Shut it," I hissed, " I need you to pick this lock."

" That's all, I thought this was something serious." Iggy pulled his lock picking kit out of his pocket, and easily picked the lock, but when he shoved the door, it wouldn't open, " Well, that's a setback," he said, puzzled. " I guess I could blow it up for you if you like,"

" No Iggy, somehow, I think the owner might suspect that."

" Yes, but we want to get in," Fang gave us both a look, like shut up. He looked carefully at the door, and tried shoving it with his shoulder.

" There's a latch," he said, taking a knife out of his pocket and sliding it up the door crack. He found the latch, and turned around, " Iggy, just a little bit should do,"

What was going on. They weren't making sense, what? Iggy grinned, and put a small speck of something on the door where Fang indicated, and then lit a match.

" Run, and cover your ears," he advised, knowing Iggy, I did so, the realised that he and Fang hadn't moved. The bang from the explosion was tiny, but it left the door open,

" Run and cover your ears," Fang sniggered,

" Shut up." I muttered, embarrassed. I entered the building first, followed by Iggy, the Gasman, Nudge, Angel, and finally, Fang.

I went through to the kitchen, opening a cupboard, and finding it filled with food,

" Hey, guys, we're golden," I yelled,

" Oh my God," Nudge shrieked coming in, the food here was actually really good, waffles, and pancakes and cake and chips,

" Hey, you punks, what are you doing in my house," a voice growled, hearing it, I prepared to bolt, but I heard a chuckle, " If you leave, I kill the boy," I turned around slowly, and saw the man. He was about fifty, with long hair back in a ponytail, dressed in a lumberjack shirt and jeans, but the most obvious feature was the fact he had hold of Fang, and he had a knife at his throat.

I looked my eyes open wide, blood was trickling down from under the knife on Fangs neck, and although he looked very calm about it all, I thought that there might be some more that even he was feeling deep down.

" Let go of Fang you freak!" I yelled. " Just let go of him," the man looked at me,

" Now deary, I don't think that you're in the position to make demands or insult me, are you?" he pressed the knife in further,

" No, don't hurt him," I yelled. " What do you want."

" What do I want? Well, you'll find that out won't you?" he smiled, "Now, all of you, into the living room," we followed him through to the room. He still held Fang, so we had to do whatever he said.


	2. Erasers

**Disclaimer: Oops. Forgot to put one of these in the last chapter. Sorry, well, you know I'm not James Patterson, I know I'm not James Patterson, and James Patterson knows I am not James Patterson, just don't sue, ok. **

**Note: Sorry I forgot to put one of these in the last chapter as well, but I am just getting used to all this, also, sorry if the characters seem a little OC, but I am trying to make them act like themselves, anyway, please, please, please review! Please!**

He beckoned for us to sit down on the chairs, and then forced Fang down onto the sofa. It was a pretty ordinary room, dark, decorated in red mostly, and quite wooden.

" What do you want?" I repeated,

" Well, lets see, I want to know what six punks were doing wandering round my house, and then, I want to punish you," in his excitement of threatening us, the knife slipped upwards, and took all the skin of Fang's chin. He flinched, but didn't complain. This is Fang, he wouldn't. I watched the man carefully, " well?" He said, " are you going to tell, or not, you know, if not, I think this boy could spare an ear, don't you?" we all suddenly looked at him in shock. Oh great! I thought, Fang's being held hostage by a mad man with a knife.

"_Lie Max, lie," _the voice, again! Then again, that wasn't such bad advice. It tried to say some more but I refused to listen.

" Well sir," I said in my sweetest little voice, " it was all a bit of an accident really. You see, well, my name's, umm, Maria, and this is," I beckoned to Nudge,

" Tiffany." Iggy,

" George." Gazzy,

" Mike." Angel,

" Ruby." Few, they had stuck to simple names,

" And the guy you've got the knife to the throat of is, um, Nat. So, we were skipping school for a day, and I know it's wrong, but it was so beautiful up here, and we went into the woods. Well, in the woods, we found a dog."

" A huge, black one," added Gazzy excitedly.

" Yes, a huge black one, so anyway, this dog began to chase us after, uh, Nat, yelled at it to scat. It followed us, and we ran, and it seemed quite desperate to bite Nat's leg off. We found your house, and then we snuck in to hide. But we were really hungry, so we thought that maybe, we'd be able to find food. And then you came in." I almost smiled in triumph, _I_ thought that it was believable.

"_It might work," muttered the voice, "Although the one I fed you, when you were blocking me out on would have been better," _

Whatever, I thought back, fed up with the annoying voice already.

The man looked sceptical, and pressed the knife to Fang's throat a bit harder, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

" Now, now Pete, they're just children, you can leave now," the hand, and voice belonged to a woman, she was tall, and slim, dressed in a black suit and a white blouse, she had blonde hair, and brown eyes. " You did well looking after my house though," she smiled, and handed over a small wad of cash. The man, Pete, warily let go of Fang, and left the small cabin.

The lady sat down and looked at us, calmly, and then suddenly, after noticing Fangs bleeding chin and neck , jumped up again. She ran out of the room, then came back with a first aid kit.

" Here, let me sort out your cuts," she said, cleaning them with antiseptic. Then about ten minutes later, when Fang had a dressing on his chin, she sat down in exactly the same position as before. " Pete was way too hard on you," she said, angrily, " He shouldn't have injured any of you. He's just supposed to guard the house while I'm down in the town, not hold intruders hostage. I will have to report you, you know, partly because you broke into my house, and partly because you skipped school. So, this dog that chased you, did it have a blue collar on, because I think it may have been Shirley's. I'm always telling her that she needs to make sure that dog stops attacking people, it probably would have bit Nat's leg off, as it really is vicious."

We just sat there, nodding. Then the door to the room suddenly flew open, and there was Ari, leading about thirty erasers.

" I dunno about that dog, but this dog really, really, wants to bite_ Nat's_ leg off." He grinned. I jumped up from my chair, seeing the rest of the flock do the same, although the woman was more cowering in the corner,

" Oh, I bet you think you're so funny Ari," I growled,

" Actually Max my dear, I thought it was a wonderful line. And true, I mean, what with Fang spoiling all our little fights,"

" I guess you just don't like the parts where I win," Fang snarled.

" Well, well, well, you can say more than two words, eleven in one sentence, I'm very proud."

" Bugger off,"

" And back to two." Why was Ari taunting Fang? He never taunted Fang. "Attack!" he yelled, and all the erasers jumped to action. Oh well, no point wondering about the facts of life when we should be fighting.

I punched an eraser in the stomach, and planted a roundhouse kick on one behind me. Across the room Nudge was beating three up for all she was worth, and Iggy was behind her, fighting five. Fang was next to me, finishing off two more, and Angel was fighting one off. Where was Gazzy, I thought, but I thought that I might have been able to make him out in between seven erasers. Well, I wasn't sure what I saw, but Fang obviously was sure he was there, and jumped into that fight, as did five more erasers, I wanted to help them, but Nudge was in trouble. I ran up to her, and kicked the eraser attacking her,

" Max! U and A," yelled Fang, I looked at him puzzled, Fang never, ever ran away from a fight. " Gazzy's hurt," he said by way of answer.

" Ok, flock, U and A," I yelled. Fang put Gazzy's unconscious body into my hands. " What?" I asked, Fang nodded towards the woman. He ran over to her,

" Fang, we can't," I yelled, he shrugged, and proceeded to the corner that she was hiding in. He is so stubborn. I shrugged, and ran out of the cabin, after all the little ones, following their lead, I jumped off the edge, and flew. I saw Fang behind me, carrying the woman, and I carried to Gasman through the snowy sky.

**Ok, so please, press the review button, cause when you do that, good things happen, like Crash923 updates, and stops killing random flies. And it gives me warm fuzzy feeling, anyhoo, constructive criticism is appreciated, and compliments are good too.**


	3. Shock

**Disclaimer: Ok, so, err, saying this will make it seem real, wah wah wah, I do not own Maximum Ride, I'm sorry, excuse me a moment….. wanders off to get a tissue **

**Note: Comes back, smiling with tissue and m&ms ok, now, where was I. Oh, yes, chapter three, and people, please review, this is my first story and I need advice from more than three people. Thanks to Avacoo**

**SamanthaFantasyFan**

**Set.me.free.123**

**Coolbeanie for actually reviewing, come on people, I need advice, **

We flew to a forest, and set down there. I laid Gazzy down gently on the mossy ground. Behind me I saw Fang dump the lady much more unceremoniously.

" Gazzy!" Angel cried, running towards the limp body of her brother, and trying to hug him, I prised her off carefully, and bent down to inspect Gazzy.

" Fang, Nudge, go get water," I called, "Iggy, come over here now, and Angel, get the first aid box out." Iggy came down by me, and Fang and Nudge handed me their water bottles, and went to find a stream to fill up flasks. Angel handed us the first aid box, and then went to sit by a tree.

I began to wash Gazzy's face with the water from the flasks, and wiped off the blood from the bleeding wound on his forehead.

"Come on," I muttered. Iggy looked at me inquisitively, and I directed his hand to the wound, he cleaned it with antiseptic wipes, and then began to stitch it up. Gazzy's arm was at a strange angle as well, and his leg was bleeding form a horrid gash, which I also got Iggy to clean and stitch up.

The woman came up behind me, and tapped me on the shoulder.

" I may be able to help," she said, "I'm a paramedic."

" Really?" I asked, kinda stupidly, she probably wouldn't have said it if she wasn't.

" Yes," she smiled kindly, "though I have never treated winged children before,"

" We've a normal anatomy, I think," I answered, she smiled, and bent over Gazzy, checking him all over. " The head and leg wounds have made him lose a lot of blood, and his wrist is fractured, he needs treatment," she said.

" You don't understand, we can't be found out about!" I hissed, " We've tried so hard, and then in the past year, it's all gone wrong, but we can't be found out about,"

" Ok, well, I could maybe call one of my work friends unofficially, if that would be any good. He'd have to know, of course, but, it would be ok I should think,"

" That should be ok, yes," I answered back, relieved that she had come up with a solution so fast.

She dug into the black backpack that she had had on, and drew out a small cell phone. She dialled in a number and then hung on with slightly bated breath.

" Hey, Luke, yeah, I know I'm not supposed to call you on duty, but this is an emergency. Yes, it's a small boy, he's eight, he has a fractured wrist, and has lost a lot of blood, there are five other kids with him, they need a bit of treatment too." As she said this, I suddenly felt pain kick in, owww! There were scrapes and cuts on all of us, I'd just forgotten about it, what with Gazzy being hurt. I listened to the conversation again, " I can't call the emergency services, I'll tell you why when you get here," she hung up, "Ok, he's on his way, in his ambulance, he'll be able to sort you out without informing any authorities, happy?"

" Yes, thank you!" I said. I could have hugged her, seriously, but it didn't seem that tactful a move, so I restrained myself.

" That's ok," she said, smiling, Luke should be here in about twenty minutes, he's a fast driver, and not too far away."

---20 minutes later---

We were all sitting against a tree, Fang and Nudge had got back. The Gasman was still unconscious, and pale, and I had been blabbering on for the last ten minutes.

" How do you think he is, I'm really worried, we can't have got Gazzy injured, oh, I'll kill myself if he dies, oh no, this is really bad, oh please Gazzy-" sadly my rant was interrupted by Fang, who slapped me in the face,

" Max, shut up." He said calmly, " Gazzy will be fine, and he won't die, ok?"

" Yes," I said, breathing slightly heavily, as when you talk that much, talking so fast, it is actually really tiring. " Yeah, ok, sorry, it's just, well, I was scared."

"'s'ok," Fang muttered, and closed his eyes.

I assessed the damage on the rest of us, as it hurt me too much to look at Gazzy. Angel had a gash across the top of her forehead, Nudge had a black eye and bleeding nose, Iggy's shoulder had a nasty gash, and Fang's hands were all scratched, we were all a pretty bad looking bunch I supposed, and wondered what this Luke guy would think when he eventually got here.

I looked over at the Gasman again, and I was almost certain I saw him stick his tongue out at me, but when I looked back again, I realised that he was still unconscious, I must have been having hallucinations, had I suffered from severe blood loss? I didn't think so.

" Fang?" I nudged him, he turned around and raised one eyebrow. " I swear I just saw Gazzy stick his tongue out at me,"

" Max, have you been taking any odd powders or pills recently?" said Fang, I looked at him crossly,

" No, thank you very much, but I'm sure he did,"

" Yeah, hey Ig, I think Max ate something she found on the floor," Fang said, so that only Iggy and I could hear it,

" Oh no, not again!" grinned Iggy,

" Shut it, don't laugh, but actually watch him and see," Gazzy stuck out his tongue at us again,

"Iggy," said Fang, " I think we ate that thing off the floor as well,"Iggy just nodded, looking surprised. That was when the ambulance rushed into the clearing, and the driver jumped out,

" Michelle," he said, talking to the woman, " get these kids in the ambulance, now, and then we need to get out of here, there's someone following me," we all jumped into the ambulance immediately, apart from Fang, who grabbed Gazzy and then jumped into the ambulance. Michelle and Luke jumped into the front, and a car came behind us into the clearing, Luke sped the ambulance away.

" Max," Fang nudged me, but I ignored him, " Max!" he hissed louder this time, " look at Gazzy, his cuts have all healed, and his arms normal again too,"

" Whatever Fang, Gazzy sticking his tongue out is one thing, but this," and then I looked, Fang was right, Gazzy was completely ok.

**Can't write any more, have to go, will try and update tomorrow, read and review please**


	4. Would you believe it?

**Disclaimer: Look, if I owned Maximum ride. I would not be on a website, writing about it, I'd be in my new mansion, playing computer games, so I think that as I am on the website, it's pretty obvious I don't own it, don't you? **

**Note: Ok, so, maybe, if you haven't already I would go back and check the last chapter, as the end of it has been added on. Kind of embarrassingly I added in the wrong file; as always, I'd had too many m&ms, sorry guys, heheheh, oops, Any way, please review, as I've only had ten, two of which were from my best friend who felt sorry for me.**

Gazzy was perfectly ok.

" Gazzy, we know you're awake," he sat up, and grinned sheepishly,

" That was so funny, I can't believe you fell for it."

" Gazzy, we were worried!" I yelled, hugging him. " You were really hurt, but now you're better,"

" I'm better, wha- but that means- cool. I heal even faster than the rest of you."

" What?" Luke turned around, hearing our conversation, " What is happening back there? And someone explain to me why we're in a car chase in an ambulance, and these kids don't care and also why I had to come unofficially, sneaking off duty to come help these guys,"

" Gazzy healed!" I yelled in answer to the first question. Still slightly jumping around like mad, " that means that he has a new talent, he heals!" wow, I'm really hyper at the moment. What am I hyper, oh yeah, not hyper, just ecstatically happy.

" I'll explain," sighed Iggy, " as Max has gone crazy,"

" No, it's ok," I said, calming down, Iggy nodded. " We're in a car chase in an ambulance because someone's probably after us, whitecoats probably. We're not worried, because this isn't our first car chase, and this kind of thing happens to us all the time, and you had to sneak off duty because no one else can know about us," ok, so I guess my answer just made more questions than answers, and Fang gave me a look telling me that, but it seemed ok to me at the time,"

" And why can no one know about you?" he prompted.

" How 'bout we discuss that bit when it's safe? Ok?"

The ambulance carried on hurtling through the woods as fast as possible, chased by a van, which Angel informed us was full of erasers. It was raining outside now, great, typical weather, though very apt considering the fact we were in a car chase with a load of bad guys chasing us.

That was when it went wrong, for us. The ambulance took a huge turn, and Angel screamed, Luke looked back to see whether she was ok, and the ambulance crashed into a tree.

We all screamed, well, technically, Fang didn't and Nudge more broke into fits of hysterics, but apart from that the rest of us screamed. So, let's just say we all screamed, and were thrown backwards,

" Are you ok back there?" asked Luke,

" Yeah," I said, trying to untangle myself from Fang. Luke got the engine working again, and the ambulance jolted, and then broke down again, we were thrown backwards, again.

Out of the car behind us came the erasers, advancing slowly, they had all the time that they wanted.

" We need to get out," said Michelle, and Luke nodded,

" Ok," I shrugged. They were right, we'd either get killed in here, or out there, I chose outside.

" No, wait," said Iggy, " the erasers have less room to attack if we're in a cramped space, they may not be able to get in at all." True I guessed, so we stayed in there. Sadly, Iggy had forgotten to reckon the windows, the erasers fists broke through them, and they swiped their claws at us. We all huddled inside the thing, hoping to not get cut too often. Suddenly, there was a huge yell, as if from a frightened child, and I looked up to check that my flock were ok. They were fine, and everything had gone quiet, I looked out of the window to see whether the erasers had gone. They had, but they had left the child who had been crying earlier.

" One of us should help him," I said, Fang clambered out of the broken back window, and went to get the boy. He went up quietly, and was about to grab hold of the child, when the erasers all jumped out at him, they surrounded him, and blocked him from our vision.

------with Fang------

Fang looked around, he had just been going to get the boy, when the erasers had jumped out, and now he was surrounded, should he fight, or fly, or what? He decided to fly, and reached out to grab the boy, but one of the erasers grabbed Fang. He held him, while he struggled, but the eraser's hold was strong. Ari stepped forward, and grabbed the little boy, then bared his long, white canines at Fang.

" Well, looks like we have a little visitor. Have you come to see us, hey?" Fang just glared, " That'll be a no then, well, maybe the little child then, did you know; he's like you?"

" You mean the outcome of some twisted scientists?" said Fang,

" No, I meant, he's your brother." Fang tried to conceal his look of surprise at this, and just raised one eyebrow,

" I don't think so," but he was lying, he could see the resemblance, this kid had the same black hair, dark eyes, and tanned skin, even the same glare he was shooting the erasers. " There is a flaw in your lie, you see, my parents did not donate me, the doctor told them that I was dead, so, you couldn't have got my brother."

" As it's not a lie, there is an answer for that, my father thought that as you were such a good subject, very strong, that someone else in your family would be perfect,"

" My mom was a teenager, you're telling me that she had two kids in the space of what? Three years?"

" Yes, " said Ari, " the school, made sure that she would, all of you have siblings, a second flock if you will, but this time, we didn't make the mistake of letting them free, and you'll never get the second flock."

" Having a nice rant are we?" Fang almost smirked,

" Shut it. Anyway, we wanted to cut you a deal. If you lead the flock to us, so we can recapture Max, we'll free your little brother."

" No," said Fang plainly,

" Maybe you didn't hear me right, we'll free your little brother."

" No, and bugger off."

" No, well, if you're not going to take the deal, or even if you are, we can't let the flock think that we just talked," he signalled to the eraser holding Fang, " go on." The eraser began to rough him up.

------With Max-------

We had watched in helplessness as the erasers surrounded Fang, and then after maybe ten minutes, they left, and Fang was left lying on the floor. We all got out of the ambulance, and ran over to him,

" Are you all right?"

" I'm fine," he said. Gazzy looked at me, and immediately, I knew what he was asking permission to do. I nodded, and he put his hand on Fang, and the cuts and bruises all went away. Fang sat up.

" That feels funny,"

" You know," said Luke, " it was all a waste of time, with me coming, and then wrecking the ambulance, if one of you can heal. Now, explain what the hell is going on. Why couldn't I tell anyone that I was coming, and do you now how much trouble I'll get into?"

" Not really, and no one could know that you were coming because we're not exactly normal."

" What do you mean?"

" Well…" I looked at Fang, he nodded, " you see…"

**Sorry, cliff hanger, again, but I really am not too sure what will happen next. And, it seemed a good kind of place to leave it. Anyway, sorry Fang was a bit OC, and all. Any way, I will update again when it gets up to twenty reviews, because it tells me how many people read the stories, and I've still only had twelve reviews, two of which were from my friend out of pity. Plus, I need some time to think**


	5. The mini flock

**Note: Ok, I never got those twenty reviews, but I got bored, so decided to post anyway. Oh, and does anyone think that if I improved my summary I might get more readers? And the switch of POV is from Cli's to Max's, in case you get confused **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, well, I do own it in paperback and all, but I do not own the rights to Maximum Ride, those belong to James Patterson. **

---------With the younger flock-------

They threw Claw back in with us. He was slightly bruised, and scratched, but mostly alright. I jumped up, and ran to him

" Are you ok?"

" Never better," he grunted, glaring at me. Then he went off to sit by a tree.

" God, does that guy ever complain," said Matches from behind me.

" Nope," I shook my head, " but to complain he'd need to talk, and you know that's not his style, I mean, it's slightly too much up front." Matches grinned at me,

" You go ask him what's up, not me," he said,

" Why me?" I protested,

" 'Cause I asked him last time,"

" No you didn't, you got Shuffle to ask him,"

" I organised it last time then,"

" Fine," I went over to the tree, and sat down next to Claw. " Hey, you're supposed to be happy; we're outside, rather than in the school."

" Cli, I have something to tell you," he muttered.

" Go ahead," I answered,

" Well…"

---------With the elder flock----------

Luke gaped at us, I'd just told him our whole story, and he and Michelle both looked pretty shocked.

" So, you're winged kids?"

" Yep, that's us,"

" Well, that's all a bit of a surprise," he said, but he took it really well, and calmly.

" You may call it that," said Nudge, " but we're used to weird things like that happening, in fact, well, normal things are more weird for us, like, beds, they are so comfortable, don't you just love beds, and roasts, they're so delicious, I mean, they are so good, especially the-" Fang clapped his hand over her mouth, and shot a warning glance at her before moving it, she got it, and shut up.

" Sorry, that's Nudge, she never shuts up," I apologised for her.

" It's no problem," said Michelle, " though we may have a bit of a problem; we're stuck in the middle of a forest up relatively high on a mountain, and our transport doesn't work, how are we going to get out?"

I shrugged, I'd been thinking about this too, I mean, I know that normally we would just fly out, but we couldn't carry both Michelle and Luke, Luke was far too big, and anyway, the erasers might still be out there, we would have to stay here at least for the night, then we could work out what to do.

" We'll stay the night," I said, " it's ok weather, and not too cold, so we'll just stay here." Everyone else nodded, and began setting up a camp.

" Max," said a voice behind me, I jumped, then turned around realising that it was Fang.

" What?" I said.

" I have something to tell you," he said, " something very interesting. When I went out to get that boy…"

--------With the other flock----------

" No way," I gasped, looking over at Claw, " You're saying that we have older brothers and sisters who make up another flock,"

" Yes," he growled, " for the ninth time, yes," we were all staring at him in awe, and he was glaring back at us.

" That is just so cool." I grinned. " What are they like?"

" I dunno!" he said loudly for him, and he sat against a tree.

" Go on Claw!"

" No Cli," he said. He can be really stubborn, but I can also be really persistent.

" SHUT UP!" someone yelled, it was one of the erasers, we were with them on a "road trip" with them, which had turned out to be a mission to capture the other flock, we were just trying to get Claw to tell us some more. I crept up next to him,

" Please,"

" No,"

" Please,"

" Will you stop bugging me if I do?"

" Yes,"

" Fine then," he muttered. See, I told you I could make him give in.

" Come on guys, Claw's gonna tell us about the others!" I yelled. They all shuffled in closer; Matches, the tall kid, eleven like me and Claw, he can see better than any of us in the dark, but is slightly short sighted in the day, he's slightly obsessed with anything that burns, or blows up. Shuffle, she's eight, and very talkative, I mean very. She never shuts up! Then was Burp, yeah, it's obvious what he does, he's five. Lastly, Barbie, she's, well, a lot like a Barbie, with long blonde curls, she's Burp's younger sister, and she's three.

They all looked up at Claw, and he glared at me,

" Ok, well, it was my brother who came out of the abandoned ambulance to get me, he appears to be called Fang, and I guess he looks like me, apart from the fact that he's six foot tall and fourteen. He had wings as well, and they were black, like mine. It was hard to see anyone else, but I caught sight of a few of them in the ambulance. There was a tall boy, with strawberry blonde hair, who looked loads like you Matches, and he seemed to be completely blind. There was a girl, with dark skin and hair who could have been Shuffle's sister. There was a boy, with spiky, blonde hair, just like yours Burp, and a blonde girl with curls, like Barbie. And lastly there was a girl who looked exactly like you Cli, she seemed to be called Max, as Ari was trying to get Fang to lead the erasers to her, by saying that they would set me free. He refused." That was all we would get out of Claw, it was loads for him anyway.

" Whoa," said Matches, " That is so cool,"

" They're not with the school, does that mean they escaped,"

" Ari said something about the fact that they had let these guys free to study them, but they hadn't made that mistake with us," shrugged Claw,

" Cool!" said Burp, " I bet they caused loads of trouble, I bet they kicked loads of eraser butts,"

" Yeah," said Shuffle, " I bet they just burst into fights, and destroyed as many erasers as possible. Our brothers and sisters are so cool! They're probably like, pow, bang, and all the erasers are lying on the floor, dead, and then the other flock are like, "Oh yeah, you stinking dogs," and then more erasers come, and-" I clamped my hand over her mouth, she shut up, we all did, I could see an eraser coming near.

" If you kids don't shut your faces right now, I will personally arrange a lesson for you," it was Ari, " and it won't be a dull, the formula for triangular numbers is N squared + N over 2 kinda lesson," we all looked at him surprised,

" I never thought of you as a maths geek," I said, smiling, " but if you know that, then, well,"

" That's it, you better be worried when you get back to the school, there will be a private one to one session between you and me," he snarled,

" One to none," I said, " Jeb won't let you, as I'm only eleven, you know,"

" Fine," snarled Ari, " but say one thing more, and you will regret it, I will find a way." He stalked off. You don't know just how tempted I was to yell after him, "one thing more" but, I knew that that would be idiotic. I just let him walk off, and boiled inside.

-----------With the elder flock----------

"Ok, that's just weird," I said, " We have siblings, who make up a second flock?" Fang nodded, grimly, " Oh joy," I muttered, I guess we'll have to do something about that at some point. I mean, like, free them from the school. Not that it's not brilliant that they exist, and that our family is even bigger than ever before, or will be, one day. Oh god, I'm starting to sound like Nudge.

I went over to the campfire, and sat down. Iggy handed me a hot dog.

" Guys," said Michelle, " what are you planning on doing tomorrow?"

" Um," I said, I mean, probably fighting more erasers, or if we were lucky flying, but neither of these seemed the kind of answer she was looking for.

" Well," she said, saving me from having to answer, " Luke and I wanted to take you to a nice restaurant to say thank you for saving our lives." Wow, that was sweet of them, but to tell the truth, I didn't want to go to dinner,

" Look, really, it was no big deal, and anyway, us and restaurants have never really mixed."

" Oh, go on," said Luke, " Please, I need an excuse to get out of going to my mums house tomorrow,"

" Fine," I said, reluctantly. Oh joy, this could be trouble, " where?"

" Well, Luke needs to be down south to see his mother, so, how about somewhere near Death Valley, California?" We all looked up, in horror; that was where the school was. I swallowed down all fears I had of that place,

" Yeah, sounds nice," I grinned. But the truth was, I couldn't get any sleep that night.

"_Calm down Max" _said the voice.

" Oh yeah, like that's easy, I have a voice in my head, other than my own," I thought back.

" _I meant about the dinner, think about it, there's no such thing as a coincidence,"_ it said.

" What do you mean?"I thought back, but there was no answer. " What can it mean?" I muttered to myself.

" Max, stop talking to yourself, I'm trying to sleep here!" called Iggy,

" Sorry Ig," I called back, I shut up, but I didn't stop puzzling over it.

**So, what do you think? I know that it's a pretty boring chapter, but the next chapter will probably have a fight scene in it. Please, please, please review. Anyhoo, constructive criticism is good, and you know, so's praise. So, please review. Man, I'm begging now, ooh, oh well, ignore the begs, just review please.**


	6. Max

**Disclaimer: I wish I owned Maximum Ride, but I don't, so don't sue me, ok? Good. **

**A/N: Ok, sorry this chapter took so long to update, but Max refused to do anything until I paid her higher, but I got Fang to persuade her, and now the flock are ready to do this chapter, finally! So, um, ok, please read and review, 'cause I only got three reviews for the last chapter, and I personally thought that it was my best so far, oh well. Just review this one, please. **

-----With the elder flock-----

Luke and Michelle had rented out a minibus for us to sit in as they took us to California. We were all worried about going back to the place the school was situated. Nudge hadn't actually spoken all journey, Iggy was sitting, not fiddling with anything, Gazzy hadn't even let one off. Luke and Michelle were casually chatting away in the front, not noticing our silence.

" So guys, have you ever been to California before?" asked Michelle,

" Twice," I said, leaving it at that. I didn't want to confess that neither of these times had exactly been brilliant.

" Really, I bet you get to travel the country a lot," she said, " have you been to Arizona? I come from there." I let a little grin play on my face, and looked over at Fang, mouthing,

" You lived with birds." He mouthed back,

" You disappeared," Oh yes, we had been to Arizona alright, and that was quite an experience, but I like it better there than California, we had friends there. Well, kind of. I did, I still hadn't told the rest of the flock everything about Ella and her mom, but they were friends, and there were countless hawks that would trust the rest of the flock with their lives, they kinda count as friends I guess.

" Yeah, we've been to Arizona." I said.

I looked out of the window, not really focusing on the landscape out there, just the sky, wanting to be flying.

_Well Max, you seem to trust these people very much, _

" Shut up, voice!" I thought back.

_I'm just saying, do you have a reason to trust them, are you sure they won't double cross you, are you sure anyone won't double cross you? _

" Yes, I'm sure, now shut up!"

_Oh, I see, you're trying to deny it, even though you don't really trust them yourself, and neither do the others, but you _want _to go to the school, you want to help your siblings. _

" What are you talking about!" I yelled inside my head, but there was no answer, maybe the voice was right, maybe I did just want to help the younger flock, subconsciously of course, but- Oh I don't have a clue.

" Hey, Max!" called Iggy from the back seat, where the boys were sitting, " Fang says, " Have a dog,"" He threw a back pack over to me, and a voice called out from inside it,

" Please don't throw me about like that!" Man, I'd forgotten about Total, I glared back at Fang, why had he given me the dog, but he looked back with something that looked like a glint of mischief in his eyes, why would Fang have that, and whenever I could remember him doing so, something bad would always happen to me.

I opened the bag, warily, and out came Total, with something stuck in his fur, by what appeared to be chewing gum. Eww, boys are so gross. I cautiously unstuck it, trying to ignore Total's complaints, and I got it off, chewing gum and all. Then I passed Total to Angel, who glared at Fang for getting his fur all sticky.

The note said,

_Max, firstly, stop listening to the voice it will just annoy you, secondly, cover your nose and mouth, Gazzy's been eating something. Oh, and Total says, how did everyone forget to feed him for two days. Just, now, cover your mouth. _

I didn't hesitate to cover my nose and mouth, looking back to see that Fang and Iggy had done the same. Even through my hands I could smell it. We all waited for it to pass, and then took our hands off our mouths. Fang threw a paper airplane at me, I opened it,

_Look at Nudge. _

I looked over at her, her face was a picture, I looked back at Fang, and grinned. He let a slight smirk back, and threw another airplane.

_Max, I agree, we should get them out of there._

What? How did he know I'd been thinking that, even I didn't think I'd been thinking that, but now he'd sent it, I realised that he was right. We would get them out, and we would do it our way.

-------Cli's POV------

We were back at that stinking hellhole, the school. Back in small, claustrophobic cages, and fed up. I could see Claw and Shuffle from where I was, but messages could be passed on to the others.

Everything was white there, I mean scarily white, and everyone who wasn't an experiment was a white coat.

Shuffle was sleeping, and man, do you know something; that kid even talks in her sleep. Loudly. Claw was being Claw, and sitting chin resting against his knees. I shut my eyes as well, and tried to get some sleep.

Two minutes later I gave up, there was no chance I'd get any sleep now, I was scared. Yeah, ok, I was scared, not that I'd ever tell anyone, especially not Claw, he'd laugh his head off at me. The great Climax, afraid, but I was, or it might have been excited. I just had that feeling in my stomach, and I knew that either something very good, or something very bad would happen tonight, and I always trust my feeling.

Whether the others felt it, or not, I didn't know, I wasn't an empathy or mind reader, none of us were, although Barbie could see the future. Maybe she'd know, maybe she wouldn't, it varied completely really, as she only saw selective visions.

I rested the back of my head against the crate, and sat there a minute, thinking, and then I sat up, suddenly. I felt this urge to find out if Barbie could see anything coming.

I stuck my hand through the crate, and poked Claw, who had fallen asleep. He sat up suddenly, shocked, and looked around, surprised. Once he'd realised that it was only me, he calmed down, and sat back,

"What d'you want?" he asked.

"Ask Barbie if she sees anything coming." Claw shrugged to me, and turned round to Matches, who was in the crate next to him. To tell the truth, although I hate it, there are times when it seems good we're in cages, as he's not nearly so stubborn when we're locked into a place. No, wait, that sounds really awful, it's just nice not to have to argue.

Claw turned back to me,

"She says that she sees some feet, and some feathers." Damn visions, make sense why don't you? Why give the three year old the power, just out of interest, why? I sighed. We have a psychic , but she can't tell us the future, cos all the visions are rubbish.

"Don't be so hard on her," glared Claw, though he spoke emotionlessly. "She's just a kid." And we also apparently have a mind reader, who can't read minds.

"I don't read minds, you're just too obvious," Claw almost grinned, "Relax, and sleep, they want us out on the training yard tonight."

I nodded, it was logical. Yeah, I should get some sleep. And let the future bring what it wanted.

----Max's POV----

I was not in a good mood, not ever, why? Why the hell did we have to go back to the school? Huh? Why? Yeah, my thoughts weren't exactly coherent.

_If you don't want to go, then why are you going?_ The little nagging part of me that refuses to get lost, asked.

" Cos, you know, I have a sense of decency, and want to save the only other member of my family I have, other than the two possible candidates, who both tried to kill me."

_Yeah, but who said you have to do it, maybe someone else would. _

"They wouldn't."

_What about the flock, would they need you there?_

"Fang wouldn't, neither would Iggy, but they'd refuse to o without me anyway."

_Yes, you're probably right, _the voice agreed _But why go?_

"I'm going you damn voice, ok?" I thought, then I realised, the voice had just talked me into that. "Did you do that on purpose?" It didn't answer. Oh great, I just got beaten by myself.

"Guys, we are here!" called Michelle from the front seat, whooping, as if she was actually happy to be there. I looked at Fang, who raised an eyebrow. Yeah, 'course we were happy to be there, ecstatic, whoo.

I sat in the mini bus a minute, stealing myself for later, I did not want to go back to the school, ever, but this was an emergency.

"Ready?" I mouthed to Fang. He nodded. I rested my head against the seat of the bus for a minute, and then I sat up suddenly. I picked up my rucksack, and stood up, meandering kinda slowly off the bus. Fang followed, and everyone else was already out. I looked around at the wasteland, and behind me, Fang asked,

"Where's the restaurant?" I looked over at Michelle and Luke, who I was pretty certain weren't erasers, but, well, you never know.

"Oh, we're just waiting for a friend." Michelle smiled. Just then a car pulled up, and out got that guy, Pete, who'd got Fang, he had a baseball bat in one hand, and a knife in the other. I looked over to the side, and saw that Luke was silently bringing out a knife, and Michelle had a sharp pair of embroidery scissors as well as a knife. The three lunged forwards before we had a chance, and grabbed hold of Iggy, Fang and me.

"U and A!" I called, and the younger ones few off. Nudge led them somewhere, hopefully safe.

"Now," smiled Michelle, holding the knife at my throat, and the embroidery scissors point to my back, " by breaking in, you embarrassed Pete, Luke and me, just want to sort this all out, but before we sort you, I reckon you deserve a chance to try and understand us."

"Great, raving loonies." I growled.

"Not quite, Miss, but, criminals, ok?" said Luke.

"Exactly." Nodded Michelle, "You broke into the stronghold, which Pete was guarding, so he tried to reprimand you, but we decided to leave a nice big bang for later. It's drugs we sell, and we didn't want anyone to find out, so we have to deal with you. And then those wolf men attacked, and the boy saved me. What was that all about? He saved me, and I called Luke, my partner to come in, he stole the ambulance."

"Max, this Pete guy, he's really strong," said Fang. Oh yeah, like that was helpful, a great useless fact. Fang rolled his eyes, and gritted his teeth. "You're fridges with wings, we're freaking ballet dancers." He looked at me, and I got it, these people were bigger, even bigger than us, but, that was our advantage. Michelle didn't notice that phrase though, and she concentrated on the one about Pete.

"We were some of the first experiments the school ever did. They couldn't give us the wings, or something, but they gave us strength." She smiled. While she was so happy telling us about all this stuff, she didn't bother to notice Fang shifting his weight a little. Suddenly he brought his foot down in a sweeping kick, and almost tripped Pete over, but he held his ground, and punched Fang. Iggy kicked Luke in the chest, who staggered back, and then left forward again. I kicked Michelle, and then when she came back in, unlike the boys, I was ready, I kicked her again, and punched her nose, feeling a crack as it broke, and smiling, she still came on, and she kicked me in the shin, which hurt like hell, as she was wearing stilettos, I felt warm blood trickled down, but it was a minor injury, and I was alright. I gave Michelle a nice kick in the chest, and she staggered backwards, seemingly hurt, but that was an act, I saw, as she came back in suddenly, knife bared. I jumped back to try and avoid the knife, and, at first, I thought I had, but then I looked down, and saw my white t-shirt covered in blood. She'd got me across the stomach, everything went kinda quiet, and I fell down. I saw Fang seeing me fall, and crying out, but he was stuck in Pete's grasp, and Pete had a knife and a baseball bat on his side. I lay on the floor, not yet blacked out, but wanting to, my stomach hurt like hell, and I was in a lot of pain. I lay there, and saw Michelle come at me again, this time stabbing me with the knife in my chest. I couldn't breathe, and I blacked out quickly this time, to tell the truth, I didn't think that I would wake up.

-----Narrator's POV------

Fang saw Max get stabbed the second time, and this time, he managed to get free of Pete, with some kind of last strength reserve. He pushed Pete off, and saw Iggy finishing off Luke. Pete tried to come after Fang, but Fang punched him unconscious. He dealt a hard blow to the back of Michelle's head and knocked her unconscious.

Then he looked across at Iggy, who stood, panting. Usually the two boys would have tied up the attackers, just to add insult to injury, but not now, Max was hurt, really badly, possibly dead. Fang bent down, and picked her up, carrying her slumped inside his arms. He looked over at Iggy.

"Come on Ig," he said.

"How bad is it?" asked Iggy.

"Bad enough." Said Fang, and he launched off into the sky, Iggy followed.

----Cli's POV-----

We sat there in our crates, just waiting for something to happen. I hadn't managed to get any sleep, and I was tired, but I had seen that Claw had been awake since I'd poked him, and hadn't slept either.

A white coat came in, and nodded to some others, who opened our cages.

"Time to meet the erasers." Said the first one, and they led the six of us dazedly outside. There were more erasers out there than we had ever faced, and I got the feeling they'd decided they didn't actually want us to live. I looked over at Claw, and saw he saw it too, we were going to die.

**Mwah hah hah hah, am I mean or what. That's why she refused to do this scene, she didn't want to get hurt, but hey, thank god for Fang, he's so stubborn. In reality, I was actually on holiday for a bit, so sorry this took forever. Anyway, I updated as soon as I could, I promise. Please review, you don't even have to say anything interesting. It can be short, sweet, long, if you want, you can just say, "Its sucks." But I like to get insight. Even if you don't have much to say, please do review, cos personally, I am very proud of this chapter. I promised a fight. Yeah, and sorry all Max fans, but this story wouyld have been way too short without a twist. I've added it onto the summary, so sorry for ruining the surprise, but I wanted to add on more about the story.**


	7. Climax Ride

**Disclaimer: I've run out of lines to put here, I just don't own the rights to Maximum Ride. **

**Note: Ok, yeah, so, I'll just get on with this, and leave the main note until the end. **

----Cli's POV-----

We sat there in our crates, just waiting for something to happen. I hadn't managed to get any sleep, and I was tired, but I had seen that Claw had been awake since I'd poked him, and hadn't slept either.

A white coat came in, and nodded to some others, who opened our cages.

"Time to meet the erasers." Said the first one, and they led the six of us dazedly outside. There were more erasers out there than we had ever faced, and I got the feeling they'd decided they didn't actually want us to live. I looked over at Claw, and saw he saw it too, we were going to die.

The yard was it's usual size, but the erasers were packed into it, and, despite the fact that we're strong, these are erasers we're talking about, and we're eleven. We didn't have a chance! I stood back, the white coat looked at me, knowing that I'd got it.

"We leave them until nightfall, then we set them off." I nodded, it was dusk now, and no one was coming to save us, they might as well wait, and make us suffer.

----Fang's POV----

I flew, with Max's body in my arms. No, not Max's body, Max; they're not bodies until they're dead, she wasn't dead. Not now, at least. We just had to find Gazzy, he could heal her, and she'd be fine. Right, yeah, we could save her.

I saw a small cave, which someone was signalling out of with a mirror it appeared, flashing the flocks symbol.

"Ig, this way!" I called, he nodded, and followed the sound of my voice. We landed in the cave, and saw Angel, sat in there.

"Where's Gazzy?" I asked, allowing a little of the anxiety in my voice.

"Gazzy? He and Nudge went ahead to the school, they're gonna be there, maybe cause a distraction while waiting for you, Ig, and Max." I closed my eyes, and put Max down in front of Angel.

"Right, look after Max, she won't be coming. Get the first aid kit, do what you can, ok," Angel actually screamed when she saw Max's bloody body, and she was terrified.

"What happened to her?"

"She got hurt, it can be sorted out later, right now, we need to go help these kids," I said. Man, we had to get Max back, I didn't like the thought of me being the leader, I mean, I'm just not a leader.

I jumped off the side of the cave, and Iggy came off behind me. We both opened our wings, and began to fly over to the general area we knew the school was.

"Fang," said Iggy, I didn't reply, there was nothing to say. "Fang, about Max, you're upset, aren't you?" I kept my lips together, but shook my head slightly. Iggy nodded, "Thought so."

"I'm fine," I said.

"Yeah, we all know what happened last time you said that." Iggy nodded, "There's something wrong, isn't there?"

"No," I shrugged, putting on a burst of speed, Iggy shrugged,

"Don't think you're getting away with this!" he flew to catch up with me.

"Fine," I shrugged, and we flew together towards the school.

----Cli's POV----

"Attack," called the lead white coat, the erasers happily obliged. All the tall, male model look alikes, began to morph. They changed slowly into wolves, just like you see in all those horror movies, with the werewolves in.

The erasers, now morphed, grinned at us, and began to advance towards us. We all stepped back, scared as hell by what was going on. Claw's face was, as always, impassive, and he looked calm, but he wasn't, I don't think. Claw shifted almost invisibly into a fighting stance, and I realised what he was doing. Claw wasn't going to let them take him down without fighting. I stepped a little closer, going into a fighting stance of my own, and Matches stepped up behind me. Behind him came Shuffle, then Burp, and Barbie. I set my jaw, we were not going to be taken easily.

"Hey, White coats, remember us?" yelled someone, from above us. I looked up, and saw what looked like an older version of Shuffle, and an older version of Burp.

"Whoo, stinking erasers, why don't you pick on someone your own size?" yelled the other kid.

"What the-?" I muttered to Claw, he just shrugged, looking clearly surprised. "I thought you said that there were more of them."

"There are, they're just not here," he said, shrugging vaguely. I rolled my eyes, but nodded. The two kids swooped down nearer the yard. What the hell? I thought, and leapt into the fighting. I saw Claw close behind me, followed up by Matches, and he was followed by Shuffle. The other two stood back, but tripped up erasers as they walked by.

I hit one stinking wolf in the face, and followed that up with a kick. Hey, I didn't know I could fight so well. The two other bird kids had joined in as well, but I still didn't think we stood a chance. You see, I would have flown away, but, I had a minor problem, right now, we were surrounded by so many erasers, that we couldn't spread our wings.

I felt an eraser behind me, and spun around, hitting him in the chest. I realised that it was Ari. He knocked me down easily, and put his boot down on my throat. I couldn't breathe, and it hurt like hell. He crouched down next to me, and raked his claws against my cheeks. It stung, a lot.

"Do you know why I like you more than your sister?" he asked cheerfully.

"I don't give a-" I snarled, but he cut me off.

"It's because I have no reason that I have to keep you alive. You're not the amazing Maximum Ride, you're the little one that no one knows, you're Climax Ride." He brought his claw up to my throat, and was about to swipe it, before a voice said,

"Let go of the kid, and pick on someone your own size." Ari stood up, clearly unnerved. I got up, and saw an older version of Claw. Freaky.

"I thought, I mean Pete, and-"

"Your little goons? As if, that's not going to work with me, thanks." The boy didn't exactly grin, but his face got a little evil look to it, then it lost it. "Although, they did kill Max." The boy leapt at Ari, who blocked him, and kicked him painfully in the ribs. The boy staggered back a little, and then came right back in for the attack. "Well, fly then!" he yelled at me. I nodded, seeing that there was now some space around us. I leapt up, and joined the others up in the air.

"That your brother?" I asked Claw. He gave me a look like, well duh, and rolled his eyes. "He said someone's killed my sister." Claw just gave a look like, sorry, and threw a rock he had picked up earlier at a whitecoat. I saw the others were doing that as well.

"U and A!" yelled Claw's brother, and the other bird kids all flew up to join us.

"Hey," Shuffle's sister, who was my age, greeted us. "Just follow us." She gestured as well, for some reason, I shook my head, and followed them. Hopefully to a life of freedom, and no more school.

**Ok, so, this was shorter than usual, sorry, but I had severe writers block. Also, I left it for months, err, sorry about that as well. Um, it also wasn't as good as it could have been, sorry. But, hopefully the next chapter should be good, and not take as long. Please Review, it only takes one click of the button, and it reminds me that I actually have a story here. **


	8. Temper

**Disclaimer: I do not, sadly, own Maximum Ride, and anyone who says I do is a liar, and I would like a word with them. Cracks knuckles threateningly hah hah hah hah.**

**AN: Um, so, sorry all these updates are taking longer than they should, but, I've been sick this weekend, and before that I've been having loads of homework, and parents evening is coming up, and you know how it all is, ugh. Ok, so, here it finally is, we get to see Max, with her guts falling out all over the floor, hah hah hah hah!!!!! Can I do that in a T? I hope so, well, anyway, I'll keep blood and gore levels down to only a 12 horror movie thing, just in case we get any little kids having nightmares. Just kidding, I had some chocolate earlier, and I'm finally beginning to recover from a cold that lasted 3 whole days, when I normally only get ill, well, never, so, I'm a little hyper. The REALLY good news, or bad news, whatever, is that this is the second to last chapter. Oops, that is a really long Authors note, ah well, hope you enjoy this chapter. **

Cli's POV

"Out of interest, why did you come and help us?" I asked Claw's older brother. He shrugged, and left it like that. "Aw, come on, don't tell me you're like Claw, right, you don't talk, and you take out all your emotions on erasers." He shrugged again, and I let out a very frustrated breath.

I hung back a moment, and then began to watch Shuffle's older sister interrogating Claw.

"So, how are you?" He said nothing. "I'm Nudge, what's your name?"

"Claw."

"Claw, wow, that's such a cool name, I personally like Nudge though, I mean, I also like Tiffany-Krystal, which was my name for a while, but I quite like Nudge. My real name's Monique as well, but no one ever calls me that, I dunno why, but I guess Nudge must have stuck. Have you any clue who your parents are? I saw my mum once, at least, I think I saw her, I was with Fang at the time. We were about to go and talk to her, but then erasers came, and I ended up spraying them with green paint. That was when we were spending time with the hawks, which was really quite a while ago, but they were really cool, although, it was their fault that I became a vegetarian. Have you ever been to a real school, loads of the kids there are vegetarians, at least, I think they are, we didn't exactly go to a real school, it was more a weird one, run by mad scientists. That was when Fang got hurt, and then this FBI agent, at least, we thought she was an FBI agent, was looking after us, but she turned out to be one of the administrators in charge of the school."

"Uh, Ok," said Claw, looking really weirded out.

"Oh, you're another Fang, right, you're big, and tough, and silent, and you don't care what anyone else thinks. Am I right?" He just rolled his eyes, and surged ahead. Nudge turned to me,

"Is he always like that?"

"Yeah, what about yours?"

"Yeah, you could say that. What's your name?"

"I'm Cli,"

"Hi, Cli, I'm Nudge." I smiled. It was actually nice to have a girl my age to talk to, or, at least, listen to. She had gone off into some long story about how they'd ended up going to school, and she'd failed every spelling test they'd had.

It was really hot out here, you know, as it was California, and I felt myself sweating, although we have pretty good protection from sun, we were actually used to cages inside small rooms, and that was how it was.

"Don't you find it hot?" I asked Nudge in one of her few breathing spaces.

"Not really," she shrugged, "We've been here before." She launched into a story about a car crash they'd had somewhere near here, I grinned, it was nice to sometimes get some strange stories of what this flock had done, maybe one day we'd get a chance to do some of thus stuff. Maybe.

------At the School------

Ari sat on the floor, bemused, the fight had gone by faster than he'd expected it to, and he was slightly confused.

"Did I just get beaten by Fang?" he said to himself, puzzled, "Fang?" He rubbed his head, and then something Fang had said came back to him.

'Your little goons, as if, that's not going to work with me, thanks. Although, they have got Max." Ari stood up suddenly, and ran to Anne.

"Anne, Anne," he pounded on her door, "Anne, I have news, and you're gonna love it!"

Anne stuck her head out of the door, and smiled seeing Ari.

"Go on, then, spill," she said to him.

"Max, she's been killed, at least, I think so,"

"No, I don't think so, we still have a signal from her chip."

"Then, she's injured badly, too badly for anyone to save, I think,"

"This is strange," admitted Anne, "I see, but, why is this good?"

"I thought you said that you wanted to get rid of her if you could,"

"Well, yes, I do, but, why do you mind?"

"Well, because, I would like to get rid of her as well now,"

"There is one problem with this."

"Yes?"

"Yesterday, Gazzy came up with his new power, he's a healer."

"Well, then, there's one thing we can do," Ari smiled evilly. "We can stop them from getting to Max, we can get rid of her that way,"

"That's true, just, don't tell Jeb." Anne said, nodding. "Ari, take a team, stop them before they get to Max,"

"It would be my pleasure." Ari smirked.

------Cli's POV-------

My head was beginning to ache, and I don't know why, it just was, and it really, really hurt like hell. "Nudge," I said, stopping in the sky a moment, "my head hurts, really badly," Nudges eyes widened a bit, and she looked at me, shocked.

"Wait a sec, I'll get Fang!" she said, yelling his name at the end, he flew over to us,

"What?"

"Cli's head, she says it hurts,"

"Oh," he said, he left it at that, but he stayed next to us, I was slightly puzzled,

"It's only a headache," I said.

"Yeah, but Max gets, um, got, err, gets, brain explosions, which knock her from the sky completely. Fang actually had to catch her in mid air before." Nudge said.

"Look, I don't think it's that." I said, slightly puzzled, "In my case, it used to mean that they were about to take us out for experimentation." Fang's eyes widened a little, and he flew forwards. Nudge looked puzzled.

"But, you can't have experiments performed on you any more, right? You're safe now." I was about to nod, when I saw something that stopped me in my tracks.

"Or not!" I said, gesturing down to somewhere below us. Nudge looked down, and swore.

"Oh the pile of F---ing erasers." She said, stopping a minute, and calling forwards to Fang. "Do we run, or do we stay?"

"You outrun them," he said, "the rest of us stay and confuse them,"

"What?" I asked.

"Nudge, Gazzy, um, Barbie and Shuffle, you guys get back to Max, and help her, we stay here and slow them down.

"What about me?" asked Burp,

"You're with me," Fang said,

"Why?" Fang sighed, having seemingly used up his limit of words for the day, but he came out with the answer.

"Because you look like Gazzy," said Fang calmly. "We can confuse them."

"True," said Nudge, as if she'd just worked this out. Matches elder brother, Iggy I think, nodded,

"Who's up for eraser butt kicking!" he called. We all grinned. Nudge, Gazzy, Barbie and Shuffle flew away at high speed, and Fang looked at us all,

"For Max," he said, leaving it at that. Iggy nodded, and we all found ourselves doing so too. "Hey, Ari, looking for something!" Fang yelled down at the bemused looking wolf boy.

"Not any more," Ari snarled. "You're not getting to Max!"

"I think you'll find we are," Fang said, calmly. I had to admit, this kid was good, he knew exactly what he was doing, and so, it seemed, did Claw.

"Fang, we can't get past them," he said, at a pitch that Ari was just able to hear. Fang nodded,

"I know, you take Gazzy, and get there first." Claw nodded, and he grabbed hold of Burp's hand, leading him away, and they sped at a ridiculous rate away from us. I had to admit, these kids were good.

Ari ordered something to the erasers, and they all began to fly in the direction of Burp and Claw, however Fang led us in front of them all.

"I don't think so," he said, calmly enough. The erasers attacked, obviously thinking they would be able to break us down without Max. I'm not sure, but she must have been one hell of a leader. Ari flew right up to me, and grinned,

"Well, well, well, I can take two down with one blow." He grinned, well, wolfishly at me, and kicked at me. Now, the thing was, we'd never been trained in self combat, so, the fighting skills we had came from pure luck in my case, which was why I was pretty surprised when I kicked Ari in the chest, and he fell backwards, he didn't stay for long though, and I was in shock, so when he came back up, I wasn't ready for whatever attack he was going to throw at me, which turned out to be a very strong kick to my face, I yelled out as my nose cracked, and blood spread over my face. Oww, man, that hurt. I hit Ari in the collarbone, and he staggered back, he came back in, and was about to swipe his claws at me, when he yelled,

"The one you want's gotten away now!" They all flew away from us, and in the direction that Burp and Claw had flown in. Fang gestured for us all to follow, and Matches whispered in Iggy's ear what to do. We flew forwards, but we managed to go around the erasers in a way that meant they couldn't see us while we attempted to get up to where Burp and Claw were.

We caught up with them long before the erasers, and we stood by them calmly. Man, these wolves are pathetic, I mean how long does it take them to arrive somewhere? They came over the horizon, and flew in quickly.

"Oh, hello!" called Ari, "what a nice surprise," Fang grinned,

"No surprise to those of us with brains," Ari flew forwards up to him, but Fang knocked him off in one go. "You still are a refrigerator with wings, you know," Ari came back to Fang, and grabbed him by the front of his shirt,

"You still are an annoying little-"

"Uh uh," said Fang, "There are kids here,"

"That can be dealt with," said Ari, "ATTACK!" The erasers did so.

One flew up to me, but I found that fighting in mid air was easier than it looked when you're engineered the way we are. I pushed this first one back, and hit another in the face. Taking a flying step backwards, I found myself stumbling into one that was trying to sneak up on me, but I managed to push him down by accident. I guessed that these were newer erasers, as Ari wasn't a half bad fighter. Speak of the devil, of course, Ari came up behind me.

I kicked at him, praying that my kick wouldn't miss, but it did, typical, sod's law. Ari just laughed, and slapped me in the face; a reeling slap, which knocked me backwards, I lost my control a little, and although I was still in the air, I had no real chance of fighting like this. Ari took a step towards me, and grinned, he took his claws, and-

Claw jumped in front of me, and looked at Ari angrily, waiting for his claws to have missed both of us, before launching into what was a pretty impressive martial arts fight in mid air,

"Oh," Ari smiled, "You're just like your brother, you don't fight half bad you know, that's the best one I've head since I fought Fang, though," he nodded at me, "you and your sister aren't half bad too. The only problem is, you flocks, you irritate me, and I don't like to be irritated."

He hit Claw again, hard in the face, and Claw looked at him defiantly, sending a roundhouse kick to his chest. Ari staggered back, and looked angrily at him, bringing his clawed hand up, about to rip shreds into Claw's stomach.

Then, in flew Fang, grabbing up Claw and me, and zooming right past Ari; he deposited us safely, and the turned back.

"You do NOT try to hurt them, they're only kids!" he said, his voice calm, but he had a dangerous glint in his eyes that worried me a little.

"You're only a kid," said Ari, "and I've hurt you before," Fang ignored this, and went into some sort of attack on Ari. Although it was obviously an anger attack, Fang still fought coldly, and precisely, beating him back. I looked at Claw in minor shock, and he looked evenly back at me. Around us, there was only a small fraction of the erasers that had been there earlier still up here. Fang kicked Ari in the head, and he dropped down, but got his wings out in time. He and the other erasers there flew away, and Fang's eyes widened a fraction.

"Follow them," he said, leaving it at that. I wasn't sure why to tell the truth, and I looked at him puzzled, but it was Iggy who helped out.

"Why?"

"This group was a decoy," he said, eyes hardening, "They're off to get Gazzy and Nudge, they want to stop them." We all nodded, and flew off after them immediately.

-------000-------

It began to rain gently as we flew along, not something that happens too often here, then again, neither is a huge battle between bird kids and wolf people… ah well. The rain was good, cooling us down, and clearing our cuts gently. We still flew at our top speed though, we had to get to Nudge and Gazzy and everyone in time, we all knew that.

Claw flew next to me, a hardened face on at all points, but I was used to that, I'd lived around him all his life, and most of mine. His face was battered, I supposed mine was too, and I gotta admit, flying along in the rain in California, trying to get to our friends to stop my sister dying and to help everyone was not my idea of a fantastic day, but it was a day in any case, and one we had to get through.

In the distance I caught sight of the erasers, and I called it out to Fang, who nodded, and seemingly put on more speed. These erasers weren't that slow. But I guess they'd also had a head start, which isn't very fair really.

We flew closer, always gaining on them, and hoping that they hadn't reached Nudge and Gazzy yet, and then we caught sight of the really awful thing; we could see Nudge and Gazzy and Barbie and Shuffle, hovering, and the erasers were about to get there.

We put on an even faster burst of speed, one I hadn't thought possible, but it appeared to be so, and we managed to catch up with the erasers, but the stupid wolves didn't notice us there. Fang motioned to us to be silent, and then signalled that we should get above the erasers, which we did, easily.

"WELL, HELLO!" yelled Fang, looking down at the erasers, they looked up, and we descended down on them incredibly quickly. We took them out, well, I'm not sure how, but we did, it all went too quickly, and it was actually pretty impressive. Iggy and Matches threw down bombs after them, and they screamed in pain as they sunk down to the ground at an alarming rate. At least, it would be an alarming rate if anyone cared about erasers, which is one thing I am completely innocent of.

In front of us, Nudge and everyone had watched us, and they grinned as we joined them. "The cave's there," Nudge said beckoning to it, and we entered slowly. It was kinda dark inside, and there was a girl sitting down next to an older girls body.

"Gazzy!" she called, "Max's-"

**Heh, heh, heh, ok, that was actually a cruel cliff hanger, I know, but you'll have to wait for a final chapter. Also, I would like to know if anyone would like me to write a sequel to this. If you do, please tell me in a review, (hint, hint,) thanks. (Take the hint please.) **


	9. I don't believe it!

**Ok, so, here it is, the final chapter, I think it's quite good, and I am very proud of myself for getting two things up in one day, it would have been faster, but I had to tidy my room today, and then I found a harmonica, and decided to see if I could teach myself it, um, which took up a lot of time. Anyhoo, hope you enjoy it, and I'm going to go see if I can finally write the second chapter for my Alpha Force story, as it's been about four or five months now, gulp. Please read and review.**

"Gazzy, Max is-" the girl said, but she didn't get to finish, as we heard a loud yell, and all turned around,

"Erasers!" I said, looking at the flying wolves. On second thoughts it was probably kind of pointless to yell that out, but it had seemed necessary at the time.

"Why won't you all just PISS OFF!" Fang yelled, then caught himself, and, taking a running jump, leapt off the edge, and flew out. Iggy and Claw followed immediately, and without thinking, I found myself up in the sky, flying out towards them, next to me was Nudge. Behind us, all but Barbie followed, and we flew in the V formation, used by so many birds, with Fang at the front, and Burp and the girl who I still hadn't been introduced to at the back, towards the erasers.

We stopped just before them, and hovered. They stopped as well,

"Aw, trying to save Max?" asked Ari, baring his evil fangs at us in some sort of twisted grin.

"Actually, yes, and you're beginning to piss me off," I smiled at him.

"Watch your language," Ari smiled, "You might turn into your sister." I smirked, and then turned it into a sweet smile,

"True enough, I might turn into a girl who could kick your ass as easily as look at you."

"You might also be lying, dying with a stab wound in your stomach." Ari said. My smiled dropped immediately.

"That's it," I snarled, and I was about to jump at him, but Nudge pulled me back,

"Let Fang or Iggy get Ari, you'll just be killed," I nodded, and launched myself at another eraser instead. We all did.

I gave the eraser a roundhouse kick, and smiled as he, surprisingly easily fell spiralling down to the ground. I turned around, and chopped the other eraser who was trying to sneak up behind me in the back of the neck, and he joined his friend on the floor, many feet below.

Another one grabbed hold of me, and took me by surprise while I was smugly watching my achievements fall down to the ground, and I tried to struggle free, but the grip was too strong. Claw came up, and quickly chopped him in the back of the neck, and he let go, and fell down to the ground as well. We hi-fived, man, we appeared to be mounting up quite a large dead eraser count.

Suddenly I heard a scream, and turned around, Ari had a gun, and he was pointing it at Nudge. Some may ask where the gun had come from, but I was just concentrating on the fighting right now. He shot at her, and the bullet got her in the shoulder, she passed out, from what I assume was shock, and fell downwards, about to join the pile of erasers.

Fang swooped down and caught her, bringing her down to the ground, gently. We all followed, and, unfortunately, so did the erasers.

When they landed, I realised why they'd shot Nudge, they wanted us down there, where they had something on us. When we were in the sky, we could beat them, when we were on the ground, they could beat us, easily.

I found myself leaping in at them, with the others following me, and I kicked one in the ribs, but it kicked me back, knocking me down to the ground, and kicking hard at my ribs. I felt one, maybe two give, and heard a sickening crack, they were definitely broken. The erasers put his foot down on my chest, pressing down on the broken ribs, and preventing me from getting up.

Next to me, Claw had been knocked down, and lay unconscious, his arm at a very odd angle, and blood trickling down from a gash over his eye, and on the other side, Nudge was still unconscious, and bleeding from her shoulder. In fact, the only person not down, was Iggy, Fang having received a nasty whack round the back of the head earlier, and Iggy looked about to fall, almost all of the erasers were still ok. Ari had disappeared.

He reappeared a minute later, carrying a bottle of water, and dumped it over Fang's face, waking him up, and looked down at him,

"Just, listen to me, ok?" Fang clenched his teeth and glared, but he had an eraser on his chest, and no matter how hard he struggled, he wasn't going to get up. "I don't want Max to die, ok? I wanted to get her myself, and save her, but Anne, Anne wanted her dead, so, I told her that's what I would do. I want to save Max, ok? I've been to see her, just now, she's alive, but only just, and I can't do it on my own, we need the Gasman, really, no alliances after this, but I need your help."

"Fine," Fang said, "But you can't take her,"

"I don't care, I'll do it some other time, we need to save her. Just so you're clear, we will go back to being enemies afterwards though,"

"Fair enough," said Fang, "But, maybe you didn't notice, the flock don't have a chance of getting up, they're either unconscious, or beaten by your erasers."

"Fine, I'll bring Max down, and your other friend, and then we leave," Ari said. He flew up, and brought down Max and Barbie, and then the erasers left. I carefully manoeuvred myself up onto my elbows.

Fang looked at me from his elbows as well.

"Is anyone else conscious?"

"No, I don't think so," I said, "and I can't move to get Gazzy up," Fang looked down at an oddly angled leg, and gave a faint smile,

"Same."

"Well, this is annoying," I said, and I couldn't believe that after a fight with giant wolves, a problem so normal as not being able to get up was bothering us.

Fang kinda moved, and dragged himself over to where Gazzy was, and closed his eyes, before slapping the little guy across the face, Gazzy woke up immediately, and looked up at Fang.

"Why'd you slap me?"

"Wake you up, now, just go, heal Max,"

"What about you guys?"

"Gazzy, go heal Max!" Fang said,

"Ok, Ok," sighed Gazzy. He went up to Max, and put his hands over her wounds, and got rid of them, easily.

She sat up,

"Gazzy? Hey, what happened to everyone?" she turned, and looked at me, "And who the hell are you?"

"I'm Cli, sis," I grinned, "Nice to meet the incredible Maximum Ride at last,"

"You're my- what, but-" I grinned, as did Gazzy, Fang smiled faintly, "SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!!!!" Max yelled, looking incredibly shocked.

"You got stabbed," Gazzy said,

"Yeah, yeah, I remember that, but what happened, I have two unconscious or injured flocks around me, and I'm now fine."

"We got in a fight with erasers, and Gazzy healed you,"

"Let me heal the others, and then I'll explain it to you." Gazzy smiled.

-----Max's POV-----

We all sat around a fire. Gazzy had healed all the others, and then they'd filled me in on what had happened. There'd been introductions, and now, it seemed that we had six new members of the flock, which I was quite looking forwards to, at least, maybe having another me around would make it easier, although, what with this one being eleven, and just as stubborn as me, it could be much harder. Two Fangs would be amusing as well, and two Iggys, and two Nudges may be more noise and perkiness than I could handle.

"I have a question," Cli said, looking at Gazzy, "Why did you come with us to fight the erasers, and not just heal Max?"

"I don't know," Gazzy said, looking a little puzzled, "It was like something just told me I ought to. Like someone was making me,"

"Angel!" the others all cried, and we looked around, the little bird girl was completely gone.

"She must have left after we introduced everyone." Said Iggy, we all nodded gravely. We had a big problem to sort out.

**Ok, so this story is actually finished. I left it on a pretty evil cliff hanger I guess, but, it will at least force me to write a sequel, which some people seem to want, so, cool. I hope you enjoyed the story. It would mean a lot to me if you reviewed.**


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